An eye-opener for BJP ahead of 2024 state polls
Huge investments on religious tourism and development projects failed to impress voters in Kurukshetra
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) disappointing performance in the zila parishad polls has come as a wake-up call for the party ahead of the 2024 assembly elections, with experts crediting the party’s poor show to various factors, mainly lack of an aggressive campaign and support from farmers and labourers.
The party won just 22 out of the 102 seats it contested in seven district of the state, with a wipe out in Sirsa and Panchkula districts.
Results for 411 zila parishad seats in Haryana were announced on Sunday. The elections were held in three phases in the state.
BJP’s drubbing in the polls comes after an impressive win in the Adampur bypoll earlier this month. The zila parishad results are considered as a wake-up call for the BJP in view of the 2024 state assembly and general elections. This is the worst performance by the party since it attained power in the state in 2014.
Political experts attributed BJP’s humiliating defeat to its poor campaign and decision to not contest all the seats in the state on party symbol.
Karnal-based political analyst and retired professor Ramji Lal said that the BJP should take the zila parishad results seriously as nearly two years are left in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections and the party needs course correction.
“The decision to contest on party symbols in only a few districts seems a key factor behind the poor performance of the ruling BJP as the party could not launch an aggressive campaign in the panchayat elections, especially in rural areas. The party did not get support from farmers and labourers, which is also another reason behind the poor show of the party. Moreover, it seems that the BJP candidates failed to get votes of the alliance partner JJP, which was not contesting the polls on the symbol,” said Lal.
According to a senior BJP leader, there were some problems at the ground level and the party leaders need to connect with people and booth level workers.
He said that there are several party leaders in the district and they have to bridge the gap between the workers and the leaders to strengthen the party before the 2024 assembly polls.
Dismal show in Kurukshetra
The party contested on 15 seats out of the 17 in Kurukshetra on party symbol. It could secure win on only three seats. The district has given two MLAs and an MP from Kurukshetra.
The candidates got only 72,729 votes, which is only 21.86%, of the total 3,32,622 votes polled in the 15 wards. The party’s three seats were won by Ravinder Kaur, Dharampal and Sachin Kumar from ward number 6, 11 and 14, respectively.
BJP’s loss in the district was despite the main opposition party Congress not fielding its candidates. Also, BJP’s alliance partner JJP did not contest on the symbol. The party faced a stiff competition from the independents.
Interestingly, BJP did not field its candidate from ward number 1 (Shahbad), helping its alliance partner JJP’s Shahbad MLA Ram Karan Kala’s son Kanwar Pal to win this seat by a thin margin of 747 votes. But, the party’s poor show reflects that the BJP candidates could not get the support in return in the 15 seats it contested on party symbol.
Moreover, the Aam Aadmi Party managed to win only one seat as its candidate Amrik Singh won from ward number 17, nearly six months after its national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal addressed his first political rally in Haryana.
The BJP-led government has invested a lot in Haryana’s religious capital Kurukshetra in the last eight years by bringing in several projects including ₹100 crores being spent on development of Krishan Circuit, ₹ 10 crores on erecting a 50-foot-tall Virat Swaroop of Lord Krishna in Jyotisar of Kurukshetra, a project of ₹ 100 crore has been approved by the Haryana government’s Saraswati Heritage Development Board to develop a 10 kilometre “boat-way” to boost religious tourism in Kurukshetra and nearby villages, an elevated railway track, a bypass on the outskirts of Kurkshetra city and up-gradation of all the religious places in 48 Kos parikrama scattered in Kurukshetra and nearby districts.
BJP’s Thanesar MLA Subhash Sudha has claimed that an amount of the ₹ 1,618 crore had been spent on different developmental projects carried out during the past seven years in Thanesar constituency during the BJP rule and crores of rupees were being spent every year on organising the International Gita Mahotsav in India and abroad.
Biting the dust
BJP candidate Rekha Rani who contested from ward number 3 in Kurukshetra got only 631 votes and finished at the 8th position, Sultan Singh from ward number 17 finished at 5th position with only 2,832 votes and BJP’s Reena Devi from ward number 4 remained at the 4th position with only 4,105 votes.
Devender Singh got only 2,365 votes and remained at 4th position. Gulshan Kumar with 2,492 votes finished at the 3rd position from ward number 9.
BJP’s Aarti Devi with 2,886 votes remained at the third position from ward number 10 and Jasvinder Kaur. BJP candidate from ward number 16, remained at the 4th position with 3351 votes. BJP’s 5 candidates secured the second position as Sunita got 5,496 votes from ward number 15 and lost by only 37 votes.